Letters of Love (Green Division Series Book #3) Read Online Free

issue.  Motorists would have to take a side street to bypass the fire.  It wouldn’t take a genius to find their way around, but not all people are geniuses after all.
     
    Two additional fire departments were called to assist.  The business would be a complete loss.  The fire departments’ only job at that point was to save the neighboring businesses.

Out of the corner of his eye, on the opposite side of the fully engulfed business, Ben saw a commotion with two firefighters.  He jogged away from his cruiser toward what looked like a fight.  The firefighters wrestled with a woman in an attempt to keep her back from the blaze.  It had to be the owner.

“No, no!”  The yells could be heard over the loud sounds of the fire scene.  Ben joined in the fray and tried to pull the woman back.  She was a fighter.  Jesus.  A loud explosion rocked the building.

“What is in there for fuel?” a firefighter yelled at her.  She continued her fight to push through them.  She was in panic mode.

“What is there for fuel?  Combustibles?” the firefighter asked again.  Ben held her back by her shoulders.

“Propane.  And oil.  And paint,” she said barely audible.  Another explosion.  The firefighters jogged away from the woman and Ben.  He hadn’t seen her face, nor had she seen his.  A third explosion rocked the building.  An impressive explosion.  It cemented in this woman’s mind that her business had literally gone up in flames.

“No!” she yelled again and tried to take off.  Ben grabbed her shoulders and held her back.  It didn’t work.  She broke free and bolted forward.  Ben jogged after her and grabbed her by the center.  She was about the same size as him, so she put up a fair fight.  “Let me go!”

“Calm down!” Ben yelled at her.  She wrestled with him.  Ben wrapped his arms around her pinning her arms at her sides.  Walking backward, he pulled her back to a safe distance.  “It’s too late.”

She continued to resist.

“Stop!”  Ben tightened his grip.  “They’re doing all they can, but there is nothing you can do.”  
She went still in his arms.  Ben loosened his grip.  And to his shock, she turned around and hugged him.  Ben saw her face in the darkness, but she hadn’t seen his, her eyes were closed.

TOAD.

What were the odds?  Toad was everywhere he turned.

“I’ve spent years...”  Her voice shook and steam rose from her mouth in the cold morning air.  “Working and scraping by to buy....and build this.”

“You can rebuild.”  Ben tried to play nice.

“You da...don’t understand.”  She gripped his shirt.  “This was my dream.  It...It’s why I work eighty hours a week.  And I was...was going to be able...to get done my job...so I could...could make a go of it.  Na..now I have to start all over again.  I ca...can’t do it.”  She trembled from the cold in his arms.

Ben sighed.  This was perfect.  How could he be snappy and hate her when she was a broken down mess hugging him like velcro.

“It’s going to be okay.”  He tried for convincing, but came off as obligatory.  

“You don’t have to lie.”  She leaned her head onto his shoulder.  “It’s not going to be okay.”

Damn her.   Ben felt bad for her.  And it pissed him off that she’d gotten to him in a new way.  Empathy.

“At least you’re okay.  If you’d have been in there—”

“If I’d have been here, it wouldn’t have happened.” She trembled worse.  “I forgot the space heater.”

That would do it.  Her trembling further made Ben feel for her.  

Ugh.

Ben slid his jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders.  

“Do you have insurance?”

“Yes.”

“Then it can all be replaced.  All that matters is no one got hurt.”  

She held onto him tighter.

“I hope the businesses next to mine don’t catch.”  She took a deep breath.  “They are so close together.”  
     
    She changed